Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Raised in Sikeston, Missouri, the seventh of twelve children, Bev learned early in life the value of a strong work ethic and the benefits of a good education. Bev’s father was a farmhand and his knowledge of how to work the land was passed down to her and her siblings as they grew up working in Southeast Missouri’s cotton fields at an early age.

While neither of Bev’s parents had an education past the ninth grade, Bev was motivated to earn her high school diploma and graduated as the valedictorian of her Scott County Central High School Class in 1990. Bev went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, graduating Cum Laude, from Murray State University in 1994.

Bev is also a graduate of the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Law. Upon graduation, she joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City’s largest law firm, where she was a litigator in the firm’s National Product Liability Division. During her years at Shook, Bev represented several Fortune 500 companies, defending cases throughout the country and advising on public policy matters. She was also an active member of the firm’s Diversity Committee. As a Diversity Committee member, she facilitated diversity trainings for other lawyers, recruited and mentored numerous attorneys, and created liaisons between Shook and local law schools to increase the firm’s pool of women and minorities.

In 2008, Bev began writing and giving speeches about how the Republican Party can win back minorities and disenchanted voters in the current political climate. She has spoken to numerous Republican, conservative, and tea party organizations on this topic, including at the Missouri Lincoln Days in 2010 and the National Pachyderm Conference in 2011.

In the 2012 election cycle, Bev’s husband, Bill, was a candidate for governor of Missouri. In addition to managing that campaign, Bev attended hundreds of events with Bill. She also frequently gave speeches and conducted radio interviews on behalf of the campaign. She also built the largest, statewide grassroots coalition of any campaign in the 2012 cycle, managing hundreds of volunteers throughout the state.

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